Wednesday Colloquia

On Ising's model of ferromagnetism

by Prof. N. Peter Armitage (Johns Hopkins University)

Wednesday, October 21, 2020 from to (Asia/Kolkata)
at Online through ZOOM Webinar ( Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/97963259354?pwd=ZFZsa2xqWGJSZW5pUjZPNkNqeGlEZz09 )
Meeting ID: 979 6325 9354 Pass code: 04072020
Description
The 1D Ising model is of great historical significance for both classical and quantum statistical mechanics. It has fundamentally impacted our knowledge of critical phenomena, magnetism,  field theories, and emergence. Despite the theoretical impact of the Ising model there have been very few good 1D realizations of it in real material systems. However, it has been pointed out, that the material CoNb2O6, has a number of features that may make it the most ideal realization we have.  I will discuss the surprisingly complex physics resulting from this simple model and review the history of "Ising’s model” from both a scientific and human perspective. In the modern context I will review recent experiments by my group on CoNb2O6. In particular I will show how low frequency light in the THz range gives unique insight into the tremendous zoo of phenomena arising in this simple model system.